Barbarians 11 Australia 18: Battered Wallabies hold out at Wembley

Australia found out the hard way that even a thrown-together Barbarians pack can give them hell in the scrum, as their two starting props were helped off in agony.

If the Wallabies management thought this would be a gentle, end-of-tour exhibition match, they were sorely mistaken. Their opponents were brutally committed, particularly Jerry Collins and Schalk Burger, and rugby's introduction to the new Wembley Stadium was such a feisty affair that Robbie Deans' young Wallabies did well to hang on against more experienced opponents.

Schalk Burger is held up by the Australian as the Barbarians ease to victory at the Olympics Centenary match at Wembley

For the Barbarians, the challenge was to live up to the standards they set last season - in lowering the colours of new world champions South Africa. Australia needed a victory to end their marathon six-match tour with four wins.

Some 50,000 tickets had been sold in advance for this Olympics Centenary match, so Wembley's bottom two tiers were well populated.

Stirred into life by some spiky collisions, the Barbarians adopted a policy of 'if you can't beat them, join them', with Percy Montgomery kicking two penalties to leave Australia 13-6 up at half-time.

The Barbarians threw the kitchen sink at Australia after the break, with Bakkies Botha just denied a try following a good interchange between Joe Rokocoko and Bryan Habana. Rodney Blake was also stopped just short. In the 47th minute, a Wallaby scrum in their own 22 was obliterated, with Matt Dunning going off on a stretcher and Sekope Kepu departing clutching a damaged right arm.

Richie McCaw - one of a number of superstars in the Barbarians side - comes up against David Pocock

The Barbarians struck 17 minutes from time. A loose clearance kick was gathered by Francois Steyn and he released Shane Williams, who danced down the left and passed inside for Collins to touch down. The Wallabies made it safe with two minutes left when Lachie Turner raced in at the corner.